


Prismatic Dusk

by Razzledazzy



Series: Moon in Your Eyes, Sun in Your Hair [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Crashing on your friend's couch cause technically you're HOMELESS, Deaf Character, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/F, Fanart, Fluff, Magic, Mermaids, Sailing, mermaid!hinata, mute character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-03-18 17:10:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13686081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Razzledazzy/pseuds/Razzledazzy
Summary: Ino's never been content with her life. Until it begins anew in the arms of a girl she loves- except it's more complicated than that, it always is.But she's more than willing to fight for the life she's built.





	1. Morning Shimmer

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I said I wouldn't make this a series and then I needed something to work on during Femslash February so here we are. 
> 
> Expect around three chapters to this fic, I've already got the story pretty much plotted out.
> 
> Happy Valentines day! Also I drew the art that accompanies this fic as a little extra for all us lesbians out there.

“Hello? Hinata! Are you here?”

Her voice carried over the sound of the sea, but she couldn’t hear it ring like a bell over the roiling crash of the ocean breaking its back against the beach. Then again, she couldn’t hear much of anything these days. All sounds filtered past her damaged eardrums in a muffled haze that belonged underwater.

Ironic, all things considered.

The sun reflected sharply off the waves, making Ino shield her eyes from the glares of the white-eyed waves. There wasn't a cloud in sight, but something unseen churned beneath the waves like a boiling stew. Before living on this island and meeting Hinata, she wouldn't have given the uneasy waters a second look. Now she found it unnerving. 

Ino sat down on the dock, careful not to catch herself on any splinters. Whenever Hitana arrived, the mermaid would find her. It was one of their normal meeting spots, a dock near the house of the two fishermen who'd taken her in without asking for anything in return. 

Looking for a way to pass the time, Ino busied herself braiding her hair and then undoing her work, piling the salt curled strands high on her head into a ponytail. The almost tacky texture of her hair was so different than the silk of her old life. The one she'd lived before Hinata rescued her.

A flash of oil slick sheen caught her attention, and she leaned forward on her knees over the edge of the dock, hanging out over the water.

“Hinata?”

Droplets of water flicked into her face as Hinata darted out from underneath the dock with a smile on her face.

Stumbling to wipe the water off of her face with one hand, she went off balance but caught herself before she tumbled into the water. Not that it would be the first time Hinata had teased her back into the water. The mermaid seemed to delight in pulling her under the waves.

She’d once signed something about how Ino’s hair was the ‘loveliest thing she’d ever seen’ when it was left wild in the water; calling it a 'river of gold just for her’ and ‘something to rival the sea in the sky’. Further questioning led Ino to understand that Hinata was speaking of the Milky Way. It was a rather poetic, and Ino smiled whenever she thought about it. She’d been complimented on her hair often growing up, but Hinata’s words were the first to evoke genuine emotion in her heart.

Hinata started signing faster than usual, and Ino only caught a few words before her eyes couldn’t track the frantic movement anymore.

She held up her hands in the sign for slow and spoke it aloud for redundancy. 

Frustrated, Hinata flicked her tail back in forth in irritation, a movement that sent her drifting away from the dock. She flipped around to circle back to the edge of the wooden structure, rolling onto her back and looking up into Ino’s eyes.

Ino leaned further down, her fingers stretching out to caress Hinata’s cheek. They were flushed red, and Hinata’s gills fluttered nearly translucent in the sunlight like hummingbird wings.

 

* * *

 

 

* * *

 

“Catch your- uh, breath first, then tell me everything.”

Hinata nodded.

They’d worked out more of Hinata’s sign language over the months that had passed since the rescue. Ever since Naruto and Sasuke had welcomed her into their home, Ino made it a point to make trips to the water to talk with Hinata whenever she had free time. The men welcomed her help hauling up crab pots and laying lines in exchange for room and board, but neither of them were exactly sociable. 

After months of groundwork to understand the signs, when Hinata was rested enough to continue, Ino caught everything she said.

‘I was caught by Neji, I don’t know if he’ll say anything to father, or if he already has. It isn’t good, I think he might already know, given the anger of the ocean. Usually Uncle can calm him but-’

Ino nodded sympathetically. “Do you need a place to stay?”

‘What?’

“Come live with us, I know you don’t think much of Sasuke, but Naruto’s really nice! They- well they don’t have space, but you could have my bed. Your father won’t be able to punish you if you’re on land, right?”

‘I don’t know if that’s a good idea.’

“Why not?”

‘The tail might make things difficult,’ Hinata wiggled her fins at Ino to prove the point.

“They’d be cool about it.”

There was a pause as Hinata gave her a flat look.

“What?” she said with some cheese in her voice. Sure, it sounded far-fetched, but neither of those two were exactly normal either.

The look didn’t change, if anything it got more judgmental. One inky eyebrow slowly crept higher in disbelief. Ino knew when she was beaten.

“Okay, I get it. It's a bad idea. Come here and give me a kiss for trying,” Ino purred, leaning out over the water and letting the waves pull at her hair. Taking the invitation for what it was, Hinata wound her hand in the golden strands she loved so much, and used it to tug her down for a kiss.

She tasted like kelp and salt. When the water bobbed her away, Ino chased her down without breaking contact. It was like trying to catch moonlight, evasive and slippery but oh so worth it for the one perfect moment when everything was utterly right.

And then Hinata yanked Ino’s ponytail.

“Ouch-” Ino blinked, her eyes inches away from Hinata’s heavenly irises. They were blown wide with something akin to fear. Eyes darting around, Hinata dropped Ino’s ponytail and brought her hands together in more frantic signing.

‘Out water now! Get me out!’

Ino leaned down and gripped Hinata’s flailing arm at the elbow, standing up with her legs and using the edge of the dock as a fulcrum to haul her out of the water. It took all of the strength she could muster. A dull slap of tail on wood was the result of their combined success. Hinata wasted no time signing her thanks, those moon-bright eyes already scanning over the water for something only she could see.

Waving her hand to get Ino’s attention, Hinata pointed at a peculiar wave, one that wasn’t moving and almost seemed to glow. With shielded eyes, Ino could see a strange blue glow in the wave that pulsed to a beat Ino swore she could almost hear. All of her delayed panic from Hinata’s abrupt shift in priorities broke through at once.

“What is that?”

She looked away from the ocean to watch Hinata’s signs.

‘-tracking me, I can’t believe he would do that.’

“Is it dangerous?”

‘Very.’

Ino pushed her wet hair back from her face, wrapping it around her ponytail into a bun. Dangerous and mysterious ocean waves? Fine, she could deal with that. She could handle this so long as she remained calm and made a conscious effort to push back the emotions threatening to swamp her.

An unusual glint drew her eye, not the thousand shimmers from Hinata’s exposed scales that glittered in the sunlight, but a smudge of something darker against the untreated wood of the dock.

“You’re bleeding!”

Ino dropped to her knees. If the dock were a pew she’d be deep in prayer, but it wasn’t and her knees just scraped from her lack of care and urgent need to help Hinata. Pulling off her shirt, Ino pushed it against the scrape on the side of Hinata’s tail. Looking at the edge of the dock, she could see where a stray nail had scraped away at Hinata’s scales, leaving them behind.

With a careful hand, she gathered them, shoving them into her pockets. She couldn’t just leave them out for anyone to find. For all she purported Naruto and Sasuke's welcoming attitude, the rest of the island didn’t hold her trust yet.

“We need to get you inside, can you hold that to your tail? I’m going to try and pick you up.”

Hinata nodded again, her slender fingers taking the fabric from her hands.

Right, Hinata wouldn’t be able to sign with her hands full.

Kneeling down, Ino put one arm underneath Hinata’s tail and the other behind her back. A fireman’s carry would work, but then Hinata wouldn’t be able to hold the bandage against the wound.

With all the effort she could muster, and sending up an actual prayer of thanks for all of the heavy lifting she’d done to help Naruto and Sasuke, Ino hefted Hinata into her arms and started to walk down the dock. Each step was chosen with care, a trip over an uneven board would spell disaster for both of them. Injury to Ino now would leave them both grounded without transport, and she couldn’t risk it. Wouldn't risk Hinata in that way.

The mermaid in her arms tensed, whipping her head around to look at the ocean. Ino turned, her eyes following her line of sight into the waves. For a second, she thought she was looking at a second Hinata, but then she realized the hair was dark brown instead of black, and the skin was not quite the right shade. The teeth were also much, much sharper than the ones she knew lay beyond Hinata’s lips. Lips that had never snarled at her like that.

She knocked a fist into Ino's arm and pointed away from the ocean, a stubborn look on her face.

Turning, Ino answered without words and took Hinata deeper into the island.


	2. Afternoon Glow

Getting the door open was a challenge, but Ino managed it with a little creative use of her elbows. Still, she was going to have a long conversation with Naruto about locking it later on. Who knows who could get in here. Sure, there were only so many people on the island but not all of them had good intentions.

Naruto and Sasuke were nice, they’d opened their home to her when she needed a place to stay, but sometimes she thought Naruto was too trusting; usually Sasuke made up for that by not trusting anyone. It evened out in the end. Naruto must have been the last one out the door this morning.

Their home, and Ino thought of it as her home now too, was a modest wooden house held together with patch jobs and fishing line. It was messy, but both Naruto and Sasuke seemed to know exactly where everything was (which frustrated her to no end when _she_ couldn't find anything). It was the kind of place Ino had always imagined in books. The place where the farmgirl started her journey from. The kind of place that people left for something better. Ino snorted at the idea of anyone ever wanting to leave this place.

The island Hinata left her on wasn’t the same one she’d been swept away from. The currents and her desire to swim towards the horizon had taken her away from her family and a life she’d hated. This place was her home now, she was grateful to Hinata for making it possible.

“We’re lucky we got here without running into anyone.”

Hinata just shrugged, unable to reply with her hands holding the fabric over her wound. It hadn’t soaked through, but a good portion of the light purple fabric had been stained dark red on the walk over.

“Do you need to be placed in water? Or can I set you down on the bed?”

Hinata repeated her shrug Right, can't talk right now.

“Bed it is.”

Getting the door open to her room was harder, but they managed it together. Hinata's hand left a smear of blood on the door frame as they staggered inside. She walked across the creaking boards and set her down on the small bed she’d claimed as her own. Without a word, Ino rifled through her drawers, seeking out a long roll of bandages she knew laid at the bottom. Some alcohol, some ointment, and some water, all scouted from different areas of the house were piled onto the side table.

She leaned over and felt her forehead with the back of her hand. The mermaid’s skin was cool to the touch, but not dangerously so. It would be more alarming if she had a fever.

“I’m not sure fresh water will help, but drink this.”

Hinata took the water with a nod and took a sip of it, her mouth struggling to fit properly against the wide rim of the glass. Her ringing laugh rang out before Ino could smother it. Hinata eye's darted to her, looking annoyed.

She waved her hand, “I’m sorry, do it like you’re drinking juice from a clam shell. It'll work better,” Ino suggested, balling up her shirt under the wound and opening the bottle of alcohol.

Hinata corrected her position and drank a good amount of the water before setting it aside.

“This is going to hurt,” Ino said quickly, splashing alcohol into the cut and dabbing it away with the shirt. The purple fabric was beyond ruined at this point, there was no use pretending otherwise. Damn, she’d spent good money on it. 

Hinata’s fins flared at the pain, tears gathering on her lashes around her eyes. Ino winced in sympathy.

Her fingers came up in the sign for ‘hurry’ with a ‘please’ added as an afterthought.

She wanted nothing more than to push Hinata’s hair back from her face, reassure her that she would do everything in her power to help, but that would take valuable time she could spend wrapping up the wound. With clean bandages, Ino smoothed gauze over the injured skin and tied the cloth as tightly as she dared. The bandage stayed secure when she gave it a tug.

Hinata's fingers skittered across the bandage. ‘Thank you,’ she signed.

Ino smiled through a grimace, “It was my fault.”

Hinata shook her head, ‘Bad situation all around, it wasn’t the worst outcome.’

“Are you hungry? We have fresh crab that we didn’t send to market. I could bring it to you live?”

‘You eat it cooked don’t you?’ Hinata asked, pointing at Ino directly instead of using the sign for her name.

“You don’t have to try it that way,” Ino shook her head and smiled. “I’ll go and grab some.”

Ino grabbed another shirt and pulled it over her head, one that wasn’t so expensively dyed or carefully sewn. It used to be Naruto’s, but its bright orange had faded to a soft marigold over time.

She brought Hinata another cup of water and walked to the back porch that doubled as a mini processing area for some of their catch. There were several wooden tanks of seawater, some with occupants and others without. Ino opened a few of the tanks, taking their lids off to look inside. The first one she opened held a cache of urchin, a few of which she grabbed on a whim. Hinata had once mentioned a fondness for the red colored ones. Piling three of them in her arms, she replaced the lid and moved to the crab tank, grabbing one from behind in hopes she could avoid the claws. She lifted the crab and its claw kept a firm grip on one of its friends.

Okay, two crabs.

She slid the lid back on with a hip check and power walked back to the house before one of the crabs could let go.

Hooking her heel around the door, she closed it behind her. She didn't have a hand free to lock it so she just left it as is.

“I know I said crab but we also hav-”

She stopped.

Sasuke was sitting at the table, looking distinctly unimpressed from behind the scroll he was reading.

Her mouth dropped open as she raced for an explanation, none came.

“You’re going to drop that.”

“What?”

He pointed to the crab.

“Oh!”

She walked over to an empty basket and dropped her bounty into it. Maybe she should have started with the basket in the first place.

Sasuke's “Normally, I wouldn’t ask, but you’ve got a large fish person in your bed, so I’ll bite. What exactly is going on here?”

She said the first thing that came to her mind.

“You can’t judge me, you think snakes are cute.”

His mouth dropped open, and he looked behind her. Ino turned and saw the quick rise and fall of Hinata’s chest. She must have laughed.

She waved her hand wildly, gesturing at the ceiling. “Just be cool, Sasuke.”

“The crabs are escaping.”

“What?”

He looked down at the basket and raised an eyebrow at her.

She didn’t have to stand here and listen to this. Gripping the wicker handle of the basket she yoinked it off the floor and took the spoils to her room. She slammed the door closed without looking back.

“See, I told you they were cool.”

Hinata didn’t look convinced.

She lifted up the basket up and grinned at her. “Food?”

 

* * *

 

“Hey, party people! I’m home.” Naruto’s voice tore through the shack like a hurricane. The category five decibels did nothing to shake Ino from her nap. The shells from the shellfish that Hinata had worked through sat piled in a small mound on the blanket. They shook with the force of Naruto’s footfalls, each step threatening to topple the whole thing.

“Kurama didn’t wanna come home, ain’t that right boy!”

Hinata reached over to Ino and shook her shoulder.

She licked her lips and opened her hazy blue eyes, “Huh?”

‘Naruto is home.’

Her small grin stretched into a grimace. A sharp sting of anger pricked at Hinata’s dried skin. Anything that dimmed Ino's smile was unforgivable. It put her on guard.

“Here comes the real test,” Ino muttered in a small voice Hinata didn’t think she was meant to hear.

The voices coming through the walls turned indistinct, and raced away from the easy pace the conversation started with.

The tips of her fins curled inward, uncomfortable now they were dry. They didn’t hurt, which surprised her. She'd anticipated the pain, and yet it never arrived. Everything felt fine... dry, but fine. A lot heavier than usual, but otherwise normal.

The door opened and Ino bolted up from the chair to block Hinata from sight. All of the shells toppled onto the floor.

She looked at them, with an exasperated expression on her face. Hinata: 0, Gravity: 1.

Naruto laughed in the doorway and covered his mouth. Hinata didn't know if Ino was glaring at him, but she had her suspicions. The man looked thoughtful for a moment, and moved his hand away from his mouth. He took a step into the room, but not in the direction of the bed. Instead he stepped closer to the lamp that burned brightly on the table near the door.

“Ino, you get into the weirdest situations.”

He wasn’t signing but spoke slowly. Belatedly, Hinata realized that Naruto had taken steps to ensure Ino would have an easy time reading his lips.

Her opinion of the fisherman went up slightly.

“I really thought you had heat stroke when you went on about a mermaid the day we pulled you out of the dunes, but wow. You actually did that, didn't you. Only you, Ino."

Hinata could feel her human’s blush where their bodies touched.

“I wasn’t thinking clearly. I only mentioned it like once!” she protested, turning to look at Hinata with pleading blue eyes. "I only slipped up once."

Hinata rested her hand on Ino's arm and smiled. She believed her.

“Listen, far be it from me to judge, but we do kind of need to know what’s going on. If this is just some weekend visit then, by all means we can just carry on like normal but…”

“It’s not.”

“Okay then, dinner's gonna be ready in about thirty minutes.”

 

* * *

 

Dinner was awkward to say the least. Unwilling to leave Hinata, Ino picked her up bridal style and settled her in a chair at the table. Sasuke’s eyebrows were inventing a new language where they danced across his forehead at the sight of her fussing.

To Naruto’s credit, he acted as if Hinata were any other guest, asking if she wanted water or a place setting, and taking her nods for what they were. Ino appreciated that he didn’t assume that Ino would be deciding things for her. Hinata was mute, she wasn't stupid.

“This is weird,” Sasuke said after ten minutes passed without anyone speaking. The soup wasn't good enough to warrant all that attention.

His husband opened his mouth to argue, but he just closed it and rubbed the back of his neck.

Sweat started to bead on Ino’s back. Were they going to kick her out? Kick Hinata out? They had nowhere else to go if they did. She certainly didn’t know of any places where they could hide together, much less stay safe from discovery by curious humans or angry merpeople.

“So, I’ve got a question.”

Everyone at the table turned to Sasuke.

“Do mermaids have magic?”

Ino opened her mouth and paused. “I've never asked.”

One by one, each set of eyes slipped over to Hinata. She flushed a soft pink under the scrutiny. Her hands came up from the table to sign a swift set of signs, Ino waited for her to finish before she translated it for her.

“We do, but it’s not easy to use. Air doesn’t conduct magic like water, so on land I’m quite normal.”

Sasuke frowned, “Then why come on land?”

Hinata signed quickly for Ino not to translate.

‘I’m not sure what to tell them.’

Ino signed back, with clumsier fingers, ‘Whatever you think is best.’

‘Tell them that my family doesn’t approve.’

“Hinata’s family doesn’t approve of, well, me. We got caught by… somebody?”

‘Neji. That was Neji, and my father wasn’t far behind.’

“We got caught by her cousin.”

Naruto picked at his shrimp, pushing them around his plate of stir-fry. “If she needs a place to stay, I can’t see why she couldn’t stay here. I mean, we already adopted you, Ino.”

Her face flushed with indignation and Sasuke snickered. “Naruto we're the same age!” 

 

* * *

 

After days on land, Hinata thought that things were as good as they were going to get.

She was doing her best, and Ino went above and beyond trying to help her. If Hinata let her, she’d move heaven and earth for the smallest chance of increasing Hinata’s comfort level. 

But she wasn't made for living on land, and clothes were the least weird thing about it.

Her fins cracked if she put too much pressure on them. Regardless of how much she protested it didn’t hurt, that fins didn’t have a blood supply, Ino winced and tried to wrap them with bandages to keep them from fraying. They cracked less if they were kept wet, so Ino took to sponging water onto her every few hours.

The mattress would probably never recover, but Ino didn’t seem to mind sleeping in a salty puddle as long as she was free to wrap her limbs around Hinata like an octopus.

Ino’s hair spread out across the pillow, tangling in the rough fabric of her blankets. Hinata smiled, wiping wetness from her face. Land was difficult, but it was worth it to hear the soft, happy snores of her girlfriend.

 

* * *

 

Ino was, in a word, bewildered.

She didn’t know how, she didn’t know where or when, but somehow Naruto had procured a wheelchair for them. It wasn’t like the island was state of the art when it came to medical technology.

Hell, Sasuke sometimes swapped his prosthetic hand for a hook he'd made for himself. Privately, Ino thought part of that was just so he could make pirate jokes.

Hinata's fingers finally moved after staring at the chair for a good ten minutes. ‘You know, Naruto and Sasuke aren’t too bad.’ She snorted, a gesture that wasn’t possible in the ocean but one she had taken to over the past few weeks of land living.

Ino's arms wormed under Hinata’s form, scooping her up and depositing her onto the chair. It was made out of canvas and held fast under her weight.

“How’s that?”

‘It’s not the most comfortable chair I’ve ever been in.’ Hinata signed dramatically.

“You say that like you’ve sat in anything other than our kitchen chairs.”

‘We have chairs in the ocean.’

“Sure, more like places you can lounge.”

The mermaid lifted her arms in a shrug, but there was a renewed spark of determination in her eyes. 'I can make this work.'

 

* * *

 

Hinata flicked her fins, catching the light to get her girlfriend’s attention.

‘I think I hear them coming home. They’re 10 minutes out.’

“I’ll get started on dinner then.”

Hinata wheeled herself over to the kitchen to watch Ino’s progress rinsing a basket of clams to throw into the pot. She snuck her hand in to grab a few before the water heated, cracking them open and then tossing the shells in the garbage.

The first time she’d done that, she forgot she wasn’t in the ocean and just dropped them all on the floor expecting them to float.

Ino smiled at her progress.

 

* * *

 

The evening was hot, but the strength of the sun was waning as it started to dip in the sky.

Ino pushed the wheelchair over bumps in the trail. It was difficult to maneuver over the broken sticks and pockmarks in the dirt. None of the island’s trails and roads had been optimized with the disabled in mind, but Ino seemed determined to get Hinata to the highest point of the island.

She said she wanted Hinata to see the ocean the way she did.

‘This isn’t necessary,’ Hinata signed, holding her hands up so they were clearly visible. She set them back on the dampened blanket when she was done. Her tail was twined around itself underneath the blanket, staying out of sight and off the ground. They'd found it was the easiest way for her to get around on land without arousing suspicion.

“We’re almost at the top!”

She huffed but knit her fingers together over the blanket. The chair slid when it hit a flat rock in the trail, but Ino righted their course before they could slide backwards.

“Close your eyes.”

Hinata gave her an unimpressed look.

“Pretty please.”

She waved her hand and used it to cover her eyes. She could hear Ino push the chair the rest of the way up the hill. The sound of insects pressed in around her as her ears tried to compensate for the lack of vision. The noise was comforting. It wasn’t one she was used to, but she appreciated the ambient quality of being surrounded in a sea of sounds. The ocean was quiet, but it was always present. The insects made her feel anchored in the moment, like this could be her home.

The chair came to a stop.

“Okay, open your eyes.”

She lowered her hands and gripped the blanket in her lap.

The water extended past the horizon. Shades of teal blending with darker blues as the depths swirled around each other in an unseen dance of currents. It was a wonder she couldn’t see straight through to the bottom in some places.  The sun dripped down to the water as sunrise drew closer. From up here, everything looked so…

Her fingers shook when she picked them up.

‘The water glitters so brightly, it reflects the sky. From this far away everything looks so...’

“Calm.” Ino nodded.

‘Yes, calm. The waves look so small. It’s never that calm when you’re there.There’s always politics and rules. Judgements. Even so, I find that I miss it.’

A soft sigh left her throat.

“I know that this won't last forever. I’ve loved having you with me all the time, but land’s not good for you. You’re gonna have to go back sometime.”

‘I know, and yet, I don’t want to. I don’t want to be parted from you.’

She turned and looked at Ino, the dripping sunlight painting her with gold. There was nothing like her in the ocean- nothing else like her on this earth. Something to be treasured. If she had to leave to keep her father away from Ino, she would do it.

She bit her lip, a gesture she’d picked up from Ino when she concentrated.

Her hand reached up to cup Ino's cheek, rubbing her thumb across her face in lieu of any words. 

“Hinata.”

She froze, that wasn’t Ino’s voice. Ino felt her tension and turned to look around. Before another word was said, Ino stepped in front of Hinata. Her arms out like she could wall her off from sight entirely.

A man stood behind them, on legs. It wasn’t Neji.

She reached forward and traced a word into the small of Ino’s back, knowing she would get the message.

The man looked tired when he spoke.

“Hinata, it’s time to come home.”


	3. Evening Sparkle

Every line of Ino’s body tensed, drawing tight as her fight or flight response prepared to kick into gear. Right now, she was frozen in between Hinata and the man who had spoken. The man that Hinata had warned her of by tracing the word ‘father’ into the skin of her back.

What was he doing on land? Hinata had said that her father would never take up the shame of legs, something only the head of the royal line had power to do. She'd said he was arrogant and proud, the type of man who could never lower himself to the level of a 'baser life form'; she'd thought that they were safe from him.

In the back of her mind she felt a sting of jealousy that this man wasted a talent that would have made Hinata’s life so much easier. No fins that cracked under arid conditions. No scales that shed whenever the humidity dropped below levels that were unbearable for a human. No ability to get up and run if there was trouble, something like a fire would lead to a slow and smoky death that Hinata didn't deserve. She had nightmares about that kind of situation. 

She felt her blood seethe, coursing through her veins like the fire she feared.  

“You needn’t guard my daughter so, human.”

Ino pointedly pretended that she couldn’t read his lips. If he couldn’t figure out she was deaf, that was his problem. He didn't deserve to breathe the same air as Hinata.

The man sighed, the regal air dissipating around him. “I’m a proud, vain man. I know this. And I know I haven’t been the best father, but these moons without you have been unbearable Hinata. Hanabi refuses to eat. Neji is angrier than ever. Even my own brother won’t speak to me. Tell me what I did to drive you away.”

His admission seemed to discharge the tension in the air like lightning. She knew that feeling, it was the same one the flooded a room when Sasuke won a hand in poker against Hianta.

A single finger poked her in the back, right above the kidney. Ino stepped aside quickly, knowing better than to get in between Hinata and the object of her anger.

She was visibly furious, her hands shaking as she brought them up. ‘What did you do? _What did you do?_   You did nothing. You weren’t there for us after mother died. You didn’t talk to me or bother to find out why I suddenly couldn’t-”

She held her hands still for a moment to find the right words.

“This isn’t about you. This is about me, and what I want. I want my golden sunbeam and my home, I don’t want to live a half-life in either world. I want freedom!’

Her signs were sweeping and grandiose. Ino understood every single word, but she had no idea how much Hinata's father comprehended.

She wasn’t finished yet. Hinata's tail slipped out from under the blanket, slapping the ground hard and sending up a small spray of dirt at her father. ‘How dare you! How dare you come on land to try and guilt me out of my happiness.’

Ino’s fingers couldn’t sit still. She turned to Hinata and let them fly. ‘I love you so much. You’ll still have me for as long as you want me, no matter what he thinks.’

She glared at Hizashi out of the corner of her eye. The man was looking at the ground, gobsmacked. His eyes traced over the fraying line of Hinata's fins, the cracks that ran along the fine webbing. 

‘If you want to stay, I’ll do everything I can to make that possible for you.’ Ino promised, her fingers reaching forward to smooth the blotchy, blushing skin of Hinata’s cheek.

Hinata reached forward, pulling her forward so that they were forehead to forehead. Foolishly, she wished she wasn’t so sweaty. It was a silly thing to be concerned about, given the gravity of the situation.

“I can see where I’m not needed,” Hizashi said, straightening up. Both girls turned to look at him, eyes wide and seeking to understand.

“Home is open to you, whenever you choose to return, on your mother's honor I swear this as truth.”

He turned and walked- with an odd little waddle to his movement- and marched back down the hill.

“Is that it? Is it that easy?”

Hinata’s gaze followed her father, her fingers reaching out to grab Ino’s hand. Neither of them knew whether this was finished or not.

 

* * *

 

The intrusion of Hizashi into their life shook their routine down to its foundations. Things Hinata thought as foregone conclusions were suddenly called into question.

Did she want to go home now that it was an option?

Sure, she’d spoken about it with Ino on the hill, but that was in the abstract. Now that it was an actual possibility, she was less sure of her desires.

Ino turned to her, the bright morning sun soaking her face as she carried a basket of vegetables from the garden to the porch. They were harvesting the spring vegetables to make preserves and pickles. Naruto was going to teach them how to do it.

She’d tried pickles and liked them just fine. However, the thought of trying to get anyone else from her family to eat one made her laugh. Neji would hate them.

Hinata covered her mouth with a hand, smothering her giggle and giving Ino a visual indicator that it had happened.

Ino scrunched her nose up, a smudge of dirt scrunching with it.

She walked over and bent to place a kiss on Hinata’s head without spilling the basket. Before Ino could draw back, Hinata reached up and brushed the smudge of dirt away with her thumb.

Ino shifted the basket onto her hip and caught the fingertip and pressed a kiss to it, “Thanks love.” 

 

* * *

 

Today was special. They were going out on the boat. Naruto and Sasuke usually took it to other islands to deliver some of the rarer fish to people that would take them further abroad. The ones they could get real money for taking to the mainland. They’d suggested Ino and Hinata take it out for a spin themselves, just to the next island over.

“You know, there’s something odd about seeing you on a boat,” Ino called out.

Hinata just patted her hat down, holding it against the wind. She was in her wheelchair and clipped into the boat’s newest additions- a pair of hooks that kept her from sliding across the deck.

“You know, you could learn to sail if you wanted.”

Hinata made a face at that, ‘I’m good over here.’

Ino just grinned at her, her hands finding purchase on the rigging as she made her way up the mast to grab the corner of a sail that’d come loose.

This was a trial run, just to see if they could be out on the water without any of Hinata’s family coming by and chasing them off, or worse, trying to take Hinata. They were confident that Hinata could take anyone on in a fight when it came to magic, except for perhaps her father.

She’d been practicing on land, getting it to work with air currents instead of water currents. Such activities always left her exhausted, but she felt accomplished when she could shift her camouflage and control water again. She needn’t even touch it now.

She turned her face to the sun and felt the wind in her hair. The air currents carried her magic forward, smoothing out the water before the bow as the ship pressed ever onwards.

 

* * *

 

The first trip out had been a tremendous success. Sasuke and Naruto felt they were able to take on one of their shipping runs alone. They would only be gone a few weeks. Everything should have been fine.

And it was, for the first few days.

The winds stayed firm. They kept course and none of the fish in the hold went bad. Ino confided that she thought that was due to Hinata’s influence. They usually lost part of the catch due to the rocking, more if the day was hot enough to heat the tanks.

It was a week into the trip before Hinata felt that something was wrong.

She reached over and grabbed the small mirror Sasuke had given her, angling it up at Ino’s face to get her attention. Yelling wouldn’t have worked with as high as she was in the rigging- not that Hinata could manage it or Ino could hear it.

“Hinata?”

She made a short gesture for her to come down. The white rope Ino had in her hand was tied off quickly to a part of the rigging that Hinata thought was too complicated for anyone to understand. That done, she grabbed another rope, sliding down it with ease thanks to her leather gloves.

“What’s up?”

‘I’m not sure. I think there’s a storm coming, but I can’t tell what direction it’s coming from, which might mean it’s forming over us. I don’t think there’s much we can do.’

“I thought that there was a difference in air pressure today,” Ino sighed, pushing sweat soaked hair out of her face. “Okay, you should get in bed. I’ll lock everything down and we’ll ride it out in the main cabin.” The place would have been called the captain’s cabin, if the boat was big enough for more than one cabin- which it wasn’t.

Wheeling herself over the uneven, heaving wooden boards, Hinata took herself into the cabin. Her arm muscles didn’t even burn with the effort it took to stay on course in the increasingly choppy waters. Progress.

She locked the chair next to the bed, and levered herself out. She did not want to be one of those fish in the tanks right now with the ship thrashing from side to side. That sounded like the perfect recipe for a concussion. 

Ino finished tying something up right as the bottom fell out of the clouds, hammering down onto the deck- the water coming down in sheets across the boat. There was a loud rumble as lightning flashed in the distance.

It charged her magic, and Hinata marveled at the way the air currents and water currents spread the energy with slightly different nuances.

“Okay, gotta hope that holds!” Ino said as she walked in, taking a seat on one of the hanging cots attached to the side opposite Hinata’s chair. She rung out her hair and did the same to her shirt, laughing as Hinata made a face at the puddle on the floor.

“Well, I’m not going to sit on the bed and get it all wet!”

 

* * *

 

The storm continued until a deceptively loud crack shattered the constant stream of water beating down on the boat.

“Oh fuck, what was that!” Ino said, and then she was up and moving. Hinata levered herself into the chair so she could follow and look out the door.

The wind whipped across the deck, driving the rain sideways. Part of the rigging was loose, and one beam was swinging back and forth wildly.

“Oh that’s not good, I’ve gotta fix that.”

Ino was gone before Hinata could grab her hands, she wanted to shout- tell her that it wasn’t safe, but she wasn’t looking and Hinata had no way to make her turn around.

She wheeled herself forward only to be rocked back by the buck of a wave.

The storm obscured the sight of Ino wrestling with some of the ropes. Time seemed to slow down as Hinata realized the cross-arm of the rigging had come swinging back, slamming into Ino and knocking her right off the side of the boat.

Hinata shrieked soundlessly, slipping forward over rain slicked wood and over to the side of the boat, the rocking nearly tossing her over the side herself. Pulling herself up the railing, she grabbed a long coil of rope and threw it over, checking only barely to make sure the other end was tied onto the boat.

Then she jumped over the side.

The ocean was uncomfortably quiet as Hinata slipped under like she’d never left. She couldn’t see Ino. Her eyes couldn’t adjust to the darkness. Grabbing onto the rope, she let it slide through her hands as she sent out the only sense she had a hold on. Magic spooled out of her like silver thread, looking for that river of gold it knew to be home.

Ino wasn’t far, but she was sinking fast.

Hinata flicked her fins, the cracked and toughened membranes propelling her through the water in a jerky movement that was far more painful than anything she had experienced on land. Her hand reached out and pulled Ino to her, the gold of her hair spilling out in every direction. Somewhere between the deck and the ocean her hair tie had broken.

There was red in the water, she could taste the tang of blood and horror crept up her spine as her magic struck discordant notes. Something was terribly wrong.

Her hand reached up and found it immediately, a rough gash in Ino’s head, and a crack that her magic told laid in her skull. There was nothing she could do, nothing- this kind of wound was lethal and Ino was drowning.

Ino’s eyes blinked slowly, and a small smile stretched the corner of her mouth.

Hinata pulled her close, one hand going up to the wound. She couldn’t let this go, she had to try. She loved Ino, sunshine or not, land or sea.

She took all of her magic, every last drop of it she could muster, pulling from the water and the storm and the air, and channeled every single bit of it into healing Ino. She wrangled the raw, electric white force and commanded it like she’d seen her father do. She pushed, and she pushed herself past the point of exhaustion. Pouring everything she could into making this work.

She breathed out, the last of her magic spent, and when she breathed in again, she choked on water that burned her lungs and clouded her eyes.

 


	4. Prismatic Dusk

Ino blinked, looking at Hinata in confusion. Why were they in the water? A rope wrapped around Hinata’s arm was slipping through the water, the end of it coming up as the ship drifted away from the both of them. Ino grabbed onto Hinata’s shoulder and the rope, letting it pull them both closer to the surface. Once the rope had taken them as far as it could, she kicked her legs to take them the rest of the way to the surface. The pain in her ears signaling that they had gone much deeper than they should have.

A series of cough wracked Hinata’s frame against Ino’s arm as soon as they broke the surface, water seeping out of her mouth and nose. No transition from breathing water to air had ever been that rough on her.

Then Ino felt a kick.

From a foot.

She looked down, expecting to see the stretch of iridescent black scales that reminded her of the night sky, only to see an expanse of pale skin.

Hinata had legs.

She had legs and she was very, very close to drowning.

“Hinata- what- just hold onto me, okay? I’ll get us back on the boat-” they could figure out what happened after that.

The pale girl shook her head, leaning it on Ino’s shoulder as her breathing evened out.

They had to get back up, even though both of them were probably exhausted.

As soon as she looked up at the far away railing of the ship, Ino felt a tug of despair. They were going to have to try and climb that somehow.

She tried grabbing onto the rope, but there was no way to keep Hinata afloat and climb at the same time. A growl of frustration escaped her. The choppy waters bobbing them up and down. If they got out of this Ino was never going to offer to do a shipping run for Naruto ever again.

She looked at Hinata, pressing their foreheads together for a moment. “We’re gonna be okay.”

As soon as she spoke, a huge swell of water lifted them up level with the rail, pushing them over the side in a tumble and nearly rolling the boat over. The keel evened out before the listing fell too far to the side, and Ino grabbed onto Hinata’s arm so she didn’t go sprawling across the deck.

Struggling to her knees, Ino didn’t bother helping Hinata stand, instead scooping her up in her arms. Trying not to think about how much lighter she was, Ino carried her across the deck to the cabin. She laid her down on the bed before her own legs gave out.

The whole ordeal was exhausting. Hinata had legs now, from something, Ino just pulled the blanket over her form before the shivers shook her completely off the bed. She went to the small closet and grabbed all of the extra blankets, piling them on Hinata.

They could figure this out, they just needed to get some rest first.

Ino barely made it to the other side of the bed before she passed out.

 

* * *

  

Waking up was nothing like rising to the surface, Hianata jerked forward like someone had poured ice down her spine. She ached and hurt in places she didn’t even know she had.

She reached out, hand grabbing the first thing it met, Ino’s arm falling prey to her vice-like grip. Ino responded by kicking her underneath the blankets. Hinata froze, lungs in her throat as she felt the blankets on her-

She pulled herself upright, inching the blanket off of her-

Flailing her arm out, she smacked Ino in the stomach, dragging her into wakefulness with a soft ‘oof’.

She kept slapping Ino’s stomach until she sat up, not really knowing how else to get her attention at a time like this.

“Hina? What’s happening?” Ino asked, rubbing her eyes and cutting herself off with a yawn. She froze halfway through a stretch. “Oh my god, Hinata!”

She leaned over the bed, peeking underneath the blanket.

“Those are uh, still there. Huh? Okay. Did you mean to do that?”

‘No, I didn’t- I wasn’t thinking about much other than helping you. Ino you were injured, you could have died. I didn’t think I just poured all my magic into you.’

Ino’s mouth dropped open. “All of it?”

She shrugged.

Groaning, Ino rubbed her eyes and brushed the leftover salt from her skin. Hinata took that moment to drag her fingers over her legs. It felt weird to have that much _skin._ She tried to move them, and ended up moving both of them together. It felt clunky, there was nothing fluid about how the two joints bent. These legs held none of the flexibility of her tail. No wonder humans had trouble swimming.

She looked up from her thoughts when Ino’s fingers reached out to cover her own.

“It’s gonna be okay, we can… go find your father. He’ll know what to do, right?”

She snatched her hand back like Ino had burned her, shaking her head back and forth.

‘Absolutely not. No. I’ll handle it.’

“Hina,” she frowned. “You don’t have to put on a brave face for me. This must be terrifying, god only knows what I would do if I woke up with a tail. You can keep using the chair if you want, it’ll be the same.”

Hinata reached out to caress Ino’s face, fingers threading through her bangs and then yanking them.

“Ouch!”

‘If I’ve got legs I’m going to use them. I might as well. I- I want this. It’s like fate decided for me, and I’m relieved, to tell you the truth. I hated thinking I had to choose. Now it’s no choice at all.’

“If you’re sure.”

‘I am.’

“Well, how do you feel about learning to sail while you learn to walk, because I’m sure we’re off course,” Ino looked to the side.

‘And I can’t control the ocean anymore to smooth the journey. Naruto and Sasuke are going to worry themselves sick.’

They shared a look before Ino started giggling. Things were going to be okay. They still had each other.

Ino stood and finished her stretch before walking over to Hinata’s side of the bed, taking her hands and pulling her girlfriend to her feet.

The former mermaid immediately crashed forward, barely catching herself on Ino as she stumbled. Her legs adjusted position automatically, bracing under her new center of gravity.

Ino turned scarlet and looked up at the ceiling. “If you wanna do this, you should probably put on some pants-”

Her nose wrinkled in a silent laugh at Ino's predicament. Her first steps were jolting and relied heavily on Ino. Her legs seemed to have as much strength as her tail did, given that she hadn’t been swimming in almost a year prior to last night- they weren’t doing great. Each step carried her closer to the wheelchair, which she sunk into gratefully and took the pants that Ino offered her, putting them on one leg at a time as she’d seen Ino do hundreds of times.

She adjusted how she sat and then paused.

‘I think I’m going to take it easy, spend most of my time in the chair.’

Ino just leaned down and kissed her- winding her fingers through the salt stiffened midnight hair. The dark strands were just as long as usual and softened under Ino’s fingers as she combed out the salt with her fingers.

She pulled away, the smile on her face mirrored in Hinata’s pale eyes.

 

* * *

 

They were predictably off course, but thankfully for them, Hinata’s knowledge of the stars had nothing to do with magic. Between the both of them, they were able to chart a path that would take them back on course following a trail of stars with foreign names.

The checked the hold after they confirmed that they were sailing in the right direction. Miraculously, all the fish had survived the storm, possibly due to all of the magic that Hinata had expended in the vicinity of the boat. 

They had food, they had fish to sell, and they had time.

Hinata learned to walk on the whims of the ocean, making her way across a deck that moved under her feet. The familiar motion of the waves was soothing, and she found it to be an easier transition than she’d expected to learn how to move with them.

By the time they reached the island, Hinata was able to walk off of the ship under her own power.

And immediately take a nosedive.

Ino barked out a laugh to cover for her, fretting over to her side and waving off other dock workers. “She hasn’t got her land legs back yet!” Some of them gave her an amused look, content to return to their work as she helped Hinata to stand again.

Her knees were a scraped up mess after the tumble she took on land, but the woman they delivered their cargo too to pulled aside and bandaged the wounds for her, refusing any type of payment Ino offered.

Hinata whispered something to Ino, and she checked her pockets, extracting one midnight blue scale that she passed to Hinata.

They left it on the shipping manifest.

 

* * *

 

The trip back was a breeze comparatively. They’d bought some rare supplies with the money the fish gained them and repaired all the damage to the ship. They’d been cautious with their finances, aware that most of the money belonged to Naruto and Sasuke.

In order to cut costs, Hinata attempted to climb the rigging herself to try sewing one of the canvas sails back together.

Shockingly, she managed climbing easier than walking, able to rely mostly on her arms instead of her legs.

The sewing was another matter entirely. She knew the basics from watching Ino. It didn’t look like it could possibly be difficult, but the canvas was prone to fraying. The oiled sheen of paraffin of the sail's  weatherproofing actively opposed her fingertips, sending the fabric gliding from her hands as she worked.

She huffed, and doubled down on the work, bone needle sticking out of her mouth as she threaded it with one hand.

When she got back down, Ino pounced on her, smothering her in kisses.

“Your arms are incredible. I was so distracted by them that I haven’t done anything for the past half hour. And the sail looks good as new!”

Hinata blushed, but leaned into Ino’s praise like sunlight.

 

* * *

 

They returned to the dock where Ino had first pulled Hinata out of the water, bringing the sails down to dispel their momentum as the port side pulled up along the wooden structure.

Naruto shielded his eyes, mouth gaping open as he saw two people standing near the rail, tossing them ropes.

“Hinata, you’re standing!” he yelled.

Ino hadn’t caught exactly what he said, but she knew what he had to be commenting on. “She is,” Ino agreed, going about the work she needed to do in order to leave the ship. She wanted to be back in her own bed tonight, with her lover.

“Well, that surprise kind of blows our surprise out of the water,” Naruto said to Sasuke.

Hinata lowered the plank, raising her hands so Naruto could see. ‘What?’ It was one of the few signs he was good at understanding. Hinata had signed it at him often enough.

“We got something for you both, but it’s a secret,” Naruto winked, noticing Ino reading his lips, he held a finger up to them.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, “You’re so dramatic.”

“It’s a moment that calls for drama!”

They bickered over it all the way up the trail to the house, at which point they kept walking past the house and onto a newer looking part of the trail, going up the Island’s main hill a short ways.

“Uh, where are you guys going?” Ino called, stopping at the house.

Naruto turned, “Trust us! Close your eyes and follow me.” He doubled back and took their hands, pulling them up the trail.

Ino huffed but complied after weighing her options. It took a lot of trust on her part to sacrifice two of her senses for whatever this surprise was. Hinata was just glad she didn’t trip.

Naruto turned Hinata’s shoulders, much like Ino had when she pointed her towards the water on that hill so many months ago.

“Alright, open your eyes!” Naruto said, and Hinata squeezed Ino’s hand to let her know just in case the boys forgot.

She blinked, looking at the small wooden house they stood in front of. It was made out of light colored wood, with a roof made out of green treated shingles that shone in the fading light.

Her fingers rose again, signing the familiar sign for ‘what’ once more.

“Well, Sasuke and I were kind of tired of getting sexiled from our own house, so we thought we’d build you one of your own. It was designed with your wheelchair in mind, but everything’s functional without it. I figure it’ll probably still be useful if you have bad leg days.”

Ino wasn’t listening to him, she couldn’t take her eyes off of the structure in front of her. “Naruto… this is- this is too much. How did you?” She tore her eyes away from the house to look at his response.

“I called in a few favors. Don’t fret about it Ino, profits have tripled since you joined us and we stopped losing equipment. You two have been incredibly lucky for us. We wanted to return the favor.”

The teal painted door opened on a large room. The inside was bathed in a surprising amount of light. Panes of different colored glass lined the walls as windows, complete with shutters on the outside that she could see through the clearer blue panes. From the main room she could see the kitchen, a table, and reading area, and three doors leading off from the main area.

“Okay, this is the bathroom, and you’ve got a pretty big tub in there, just in case. The door next to it is a closet.” Naruto opened the door to let them look in on the stone worked room with sea glass accents. “We kind of planned everything with Hinata’s tail in mind.”

Ino looked away from the room. This was a house. A whole house.  A home. “Naruto this is… it’s beautiful, but it’s also- so much.”

He shrugged, a blush running up his arms and his neck. “It’s nothing.”

Sasuke snorted from the kitchen where he had his hip braced against the counter, a mug of tea in his hands. There was a pot steeping on the stove. “The other door leads to the bedroom." Hinata was already moving to open it before he finished speaking.

She was met with a stunning view of the ocean through a large window across the room, she exhaled softly at the sight. This room held both of her homes in it’s heart. It was… she staggered over to the bed and sat down with a shaky exhale. This was a place where she could belong.

The blankets on the bed were familiar, they belonged to Ino and had been washed of the salt water and scales that had been left behind. They smelled softly of the lavender soap Ino had made for them.

She sat up and caught Naruto’s attention, signing ‘thank you’ at him with a quick twist of her fingers. He nodded and walked away from the door, giving the two the illusion of privacy.

Pulling the blankets close, she inhaled and closed her eyes. When she opened them she was met with the sight of Ino beaming at her from the doorway. She was so lucky to have this, to have a home and a family that never made her feel less than she was for things outside of her control.

Naruto squawked from the kitchen, and Sasuke shared one of his rare laughs.

She smiled at Ino, rolling off the bed and getting to her feet. They had a million happy moments to look forward too, but right now they had two very loyal friends to thank and invite to dinner.

 

* * *

 

No one on the island really knew where they came from. One day the sun was there, and then the moon followed her. They were a mystery to many, and friends to even more. They relied on each other, even though Hinata could never say how much she loved her, and Ino could never hear the soft sighs of her lover, everything they did together fell into place like it was meant to be.

They were happy, and that was all that mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was meant to be an epilogue to this, but it contains a bit too much to fit into one thing. If I decide to write it, it'll be as a short sequel in the series.
> 
> Check out my profile for links you can find me at.


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